Disk drives are commonly used to store large amounts of data in a readily available form. Typically, the primary components of a disk drive are a head disk assembly and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) which, when fixed to one another, form a functional unit that is then connected to a computer.
One form of disk drive in use today is an external disk drive system which is a standalone unit that communicates with one or more host computers, generally via an external cable such as a universal serial bus (USB) cable or Firewire™ cable. In some configurations, other storage device peripherals such as a flash memory card reader may be integrated with the external disk drive system to communicate with the host via the external interface cable. An external disk drive system may also be adapted to connect to one or more hosts via more than one type of interface cable thus allowing the user to optimize a data transfer based on the characteristics of a selected cable, as well as using different cables for each of the external disk drive and the card reader.
Currently, however, connecting a second interface cable, such as a Firewire™, to an external disk drive system which is already in communication with a host via a first interface cable, such as a USB, may cause an undefined state in the external disk drive system wherein the second interface cable remains in a dismounted state and thus unused. As such, it is often required for the external disk drive system to be power cycled before the second interface cable becomes mounted to the external disk drive system, thus causing delays and suspensions in the operational status of the external disk drive system.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved method for switching interfaces in an external disk drive.